Camels and Camelids

PREPARATION OF ANTI-DIARRHOEA IMMUNE CAMEL MILK AND THE DETERMINATION OF THE ANTIGEN-BINDING ACTIVITY OF ITS SPECIFIC IgG SUBCLASSES

Journal Edition: August 2018
Article DOI: 10.5958/2277-8934.2018.00027.9
Published On: 15-10-2018 08:23

Li Yi1,2, Liang Ming1,2, Yisi Ai3, Le Hai1,2, Jing He1,2, Xiang-yu Qiao1,2 and Rimutu Ji1,2
1Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology and Engineering Ministry of Education,
College of Food Science and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
2Inner Mongolia Institute of Camel Research, Alxa Right Banner, China
3College of Industrial Technology, Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Ulaanbaater, Mongolia

ABSTRACT

Infectious diarrhoea caused by a variety of pathogens such as bacteria, viruses and fungus, is a common and frequent-occurring disease that endangers human health. Immune milk containing specific immunoglobulins (IgG) obtained by using various pathogens to immunise pregnant animals has been widely used in the intestinal infectious diseases in recent decades. IgG in camel milk has found three subclasses are the same as those found in camel serum, of which IgG2 and IgG3 are heavy-chain antibodies (HCAbs). HCAbs are lacking light chains and constant domain 1 (CH1), but with complete antigen binding capacity and more stable than conventional IgG. It can pass the blood brain barrier and able to penetrate into tissues and cells that other animals’ Igs were unable to do. In this study, we aimed to prepare immune camel milk from immunisation of lactating camels with a multivalent vaccine consisting of 3 strains of pathogenic diarrhoea bacteria. Then, we established indirect Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) protocol to detect the antigen-binding activity of each IgG subclass in the serum and whey. The relative titres of immune serum (1:5000) and whey (1:1000) were significantly increased after the immunisation. The results of indirect ELISA showed that immunised camels produced both conventional and HCAbs specific to the antigen. The titres of each IgG subclass in the immune whey almost reached 1:64000. Our findings indicated that immunisation of lactating camels can produce immune milk containing specific IgGs, which may be exploited in therapies for prevention of pathogenic-induced diarrhoea.
Key words: Anti-diarrhoea, HCAbs, camel milk, immunoglobins, intestinal disease